My rating: 4.3 out of 5
By now, there are a number of human colonies seeded around the galaxy and also a couple of alien species who are being helped along in various ways by the “Bobs”, the ever-growing number of sentient AI starships roaming about the place trying to help however and wherever they can. They’ve still got their work cut out for them in the shape of the rogue Brazilian AI ship Medeiros and his fleets, as well as a destructive roaming alien species, dubbed the "Others”, inflicting havoc wherever they go. Now it looks very much like the Others have set their sights squarely on Earth which is, in itself, a bit of a wasteland finally screwed over by our own species. Because of this, the Bobs and the remaining people on Earth are quite motivated to get their backsides off-planet and relocate to a more suitable and safer location far away. With a climactic battle for Earth against the Others rapidly approaching, if the human species is going to have any real chance of survival, the Bobs must come up with a plan to fight off the Others and/or get the remaining millions off Earth before the proverbial hits the proverbial.
Parallel to this are the continuing stories of some Bobs who have decided to interact with the physical world around them by entering android bodies. This includes “Original Bob” [who was the first human-derived AI of the whole story] and his interactions with the sentient furry creatures on Delta Eridani as well as Howard [a descendant clone of Bob] who has built some strong relationships with flesh and blood humans on the colony world Vulcan. Also, the Bobs have rescued the “Pavs” after their world was raped and left barren by the Others and there is a concerted effort to find the Pav remnant a new place to live. These stories show that the AI’s have retained a large amount of their humanity and you’d argue that they’re still “people” even though their minds manifest via machines. I guess that’s the general profound theme of this series, that artificial intelligence could possibly still contain a soul or essence of some description.
The writing style is very good, flowing at a fairly steady pace throughout and the action is nicely done, absorbing without being too much. Each chapter is told from the first-person viewpoint of one of the Bobs and, as I found with the previous books, can be a tad confusing if you don’t take careful note at the beginning of each chapter who/where/when the events are about. If you keep track of where you are in the story it’ll fall into place superbly.
Because of the philosophical ideas and much of the other scientific and technological stuff in the story, I’d place these books firmly at the hard sci-fi end of the scale. But they’d have to be some of the most accessible hard sci-fi for a general audience in recent times [that I’ve seen] and part of the reason why I rate them as great introductory science fiction books for a wide range of readers. Again, I am particularly reminded of the work of John Scalzi and his witty style, both authors’ books are very easy to read and get immersed in. For these reasons, the Bobiverse series is one of the most memorable in recent years and hopefully just the beginning of a long line of work from Dennis E. Taylor.
4/5 for concept
4/5 for delivery
5/5 for entertainment
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